Kautukams

Kautukam means in “Praise of” . It is also called Kavithuvam or Kausthuvam. Kavithuvam meaning “Poetic Quality”. The Kautukams were once performed by temple dancers as rituals. On the day of “Tiruvadira” in month of Margazi season (Margashirsha) when the gods were brought out for procession the Kautukams were danced and sung amidst the crowds. Certain temples had it own Kautukam. Panchamurthy kautukams were written on Lord Vinayaka, Muruga, Natesha, Sambanda and Sandeshwarar. The custom was to use high pitched ragas like Natti, Varali, Arabhi to compose them. Gangai Muthu Nattuvanar has composed most of the popular kautukams danced in the present . Danseuse Priyadarshini Govind has made a special note on Navasandhi kautukams in her video CD . She says “The Navasandhi kautukams were performed in the temples at different sandhis (junctions of the temple). This was performed to propitiate the Gods of different sandhis. The Navasandhi kautukams are on Brahma, Indra, Agni, Yama, Niritti, Varuna, Vayu Kubera and Ishana.” The Structure of kautukam is such that poetic lines are often followed and preceded by Sollu’s. Also the poetic lines are first recited and then sung in a ragam. Following are the kautukams that have been worked for you.

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21 responses so far ↓

ya ur site is so usefull for me. daily iam practising with that soll ketu
but i want that for alarippu, jattieswaram, pushpanjali, kautukams, natesa kautukams so please send me that downloading details

Hi anjali ….ur videos r really very useful for me..i learnt dance till varnam but couldn continue due to marriage and delivery…i want to recolect everythinv tht i learnt n then join bck the classses..wen i googled for sum recovery of steps i found ur videos they were so useful….i wud u to post vinayaga katuvam too…n varnam in detail..ty

I am 29 years old. Actually dance is my passion( from the childhood) but ddnt get the opportunity to learn dance from a gurumukham.I was very keen to learn the dance from my friends studying the dance in my school and college days.Fortuntely i got the opportunity to learn bharathanatyam. My dream in mind is to become a good dancer appreciated by everyone. Can you give me some suggestions to improve myself. I just completed jathiswaram and started padam. But i feel difficult to complete performing jathiswaram because i am getting tired in the last ‘korvay’. Can you suggest me some tips to improve the energy level…

Thanks a lot for your efforts. I was just wondering if you could also specifically explain the hastamudras used in the kautukams and thillanas. It is a bit hard to understand them just from the complete set.